Not only do sliding doors LOOK nice, but they also save space and could save you a lot of money if you need to replace an odd shaped door that they don’t make standard anymore. They are a fairly easy DIY project and the possibilities are endless when it comes to style and size.

A friend of mine also loves the mid-century modern look and needed a space saving door for her newly remodeled bathroom. PS remember this floating vanity?? That’s this same bathroom!

.

Don’t you love this slatted glass panel door?? I do! It reminds me of those southern California mid century houses.

.

If you’re ready to make one of your own, I’ve got the how to for you right here 🙂

.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support this site and keeps this content free. Thank you for your support! See disclosure policy for details.

Step 1: Cut Pieces for DIY Modern Sliding Door Frame

Measure your door opening. If your door opening is trimmed, include the trim in your measurement. Now, add 2″ to the WIDTH of your door. You can add to the height if you want but don’t have to. Now you have the size you need your door to be. Cut 4 pieces of 1×4 the length of the height you want your door.

.

Now, subtract 7″ from the total width you want your door to be and cut 12 pieces of 1×6 this length. Shown below is half of the cuts…two 1x4s and six 1x6s. This will make one frame, but you will need two.

Step 2: Assemble the DIY Modern Sliding Door Frame

Drill 3/4″ pocket holes in both ends of all the 1×6 boards.

Using 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws, assemble two door frames like shown. The 1x4s will be the sides and the 1x6s will be the slats.

.

Depending on the height of your door, your openings may be different than mine. Take your door height and subtract 33″, then divide by 5 (the number of openings) and that is how much space should be between the slats. Make sure you space evenly! Use a square to make sure you attach everything square. This is important once you get to inserting the glass panels.

Step 3: Route Out Slots for Glass Panels

Insert a 3/8″ rabbet bit (you could use another size if you wish, I just use 3/8″) into your router. Adjust the height to 1/8″ and route the open panels of the door. The corners will be rounded, so square them out using a hammer and a sharp wood chisel.

Step 4: Insert Glass Panels in DIY Modern Sliding Door

Measure the opening in all the panels INCLUDING the routed grove. Purchase 1/8″ thick glass panels to fit these openings. Leave a little wiggle room (1/8″ or 1/16″) to make sure they’ll fit. I buy my glass from a local glass and windshield place, but sometimes big box home improvement stores will cut glass to size for you if you don’t have a local shop.

.

Once you get your glass panels, make sure they fit in the grooves, then spray paint them with frosted glass spray paint. You don’t actually HAVE to do this, but it’s probably a good idea if you’re putting it on a bathroom HAHA. NOTE: Don’t do this against your garage doors…I just set them here after I was finished to take a picture.

While the spray paint dries, you can paint or stain your two door frames . I painted mine in Sherwin Williams Naval. I LOVE THIS COLOR!! Anyway…You only need to finish the fronts, not the sides with pocket holes. You can do this later but it’s MUCH easier to do it now haha.

.

Once everything is dry, lay the routed door frame face down on a work surface or saw horses. Place the glass panels in the openings.

Step 5: Glue on the Back Frame of the Sliding Door

Put wood glue along all the wood pieces–down the sides and across all the slats. Place the other door frame on top so you kind of “sandwich the glass”. Make sure everything lines up and clamp along the edges to hold in place. If you have a nail gun, you can shoot a few nails to hold it, but if you don’t, clamps work fine.

.

Putty the nail holes if you used any. Once the glue is dry, you can sand and touch up the paint in these spots.

Now your door is done!

Step 6: Prepare the Sliding Door Hardware

Double the width of your door and add about 3-4″. Get an 1/8″ thick x 2″ tall piece of steel flat stock this length. In my case, it was 7′ long. This will be your main sliding rail. You can buy steel flat stock at your local hardware store or metal yard. It’s cheap! Also, while you’re there, grab 2 pieces of 1/8″ thick x 1″ wide x 12″ long steel flat stock. These will be the pieces that attach the pulleys to the door.

As long as you can locate your studs, hanging the hardware isn’t too hard 🙂 Of course, you can always buy the sliding door hardware instead of making your own for a few more dollars, but I’m cheap, so I save every penny I can 😉 ha!

.

Once it’s hung, you have a gorgeous new DIY modern sliding door!

I love how the frosted glass lets the light through, but also provides privacy so it can still be used for this bathroom space.

If you didn’t need the privacy, you could totally skip the frosted glass and leave them clear. That would be cute for an office space or dining room or even a kids playroom.

.

So how do you like this modern take on a sliding door?? Yay or nay?? Let me know in the comments!

.

Also, I’d love it if you’d pin this for later 🙂

And if you’d like some more sliding door tutorials, check out this one and this one 🙂 Or, if you’d like more modern style projects, check out this dresser, this retro cabinet, and this floating vanity! There are plenty more projects coming up…don’t miss out on them!! Sign up below to receive email updates on new projects!

9 Comment

Thank you so much for this! I have a small office that currently has french doors (which it completely impractical for a small room). I wanted to replace them with a stationary door and then one that can slide behind it, both with frosted glass panels, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to make them. This is perfect. Thank you, thank you.

Rex

Since the pieces are glued together, it would be difficult to replace the glass without having to pry the door apart, which would likely cause some damage. If this was a concern, you could always screw the front and back together so that if that happened, you could unscrew, replace, then screw back together. However, since this is very inexpensive to make, if it was me and a glass broke, I would just remake the door. It would only cost $30 or so for the lumber plus one glass pane.

Ed K

August 3, 2018 at 6:44 pm

This is brilliant! I was looking for a solution to a mid century modern barn door problem and this is it! As for those concerned on glass breakage I see 2 possible mods. 1, I like how you do the double door frame to hide all screws, so using the same technique, they could NOT use a router, get glass cut to fit the actual opening, and use thin trim on both sides of the glass to hold it in. Or 2, build the frame with 2x, you would see the Kreig joints, and use the same thin trim style to hold glass in place.

mike

August 22, 2018 at 10:10 am

Can this be mounted someway to the ceiling instead of a wall? I want to build sliding panels to hide a wall of tools.

You can look into other ways to mount this possibly. Maybe use eye hooks screwed into the top of the door and they slide along a galvanized pipe mounted to the ceiling? I’ve never tried this before, but seen it done.

Comments are closed.

About Me

Hello and welcome to Woodshop Diaries! I'm Shara and I love power tools, coffee, corny jokes and occasional sarcasm. If you like any those things too, let's totally be friends!
Read More...

Follow on Pinterest

Follow Me on Instagram

Copyright Policy

All images and text on this site are the property of Woodshop Diaries. Feel free to use one image, but please be respectful and link back to my original post. Please do not remove any watermarks, crop, or edit any of my images. Pinning is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!